News flash: Dad is prince of Genovia. (So that’s why a limo always meets her at the airport!)
Downer: Dad can’t have any more kids. (So no heir to the throne.)
Shock of the century: Like it or not, Mia is prime princess material.
The worst part: Princess lessons from her dreaded grandmere, the dowager princess of Genovia, who thinks Mia has a thing or two to learn before she steps up to the throne.
Well, her father can lecture her until he’s royal-blue in the face about her princessly duty no— way is she moving to Genovia and leaving Manhattan behind. But what’s a girl to do when her name is PRINCESS AMELIA MIGNONETTE GRIMALDI THERMOPOLIS RENALDO?

Why I read this Book:

Meg Cabot kept popping up all over the place and I started following her blog. She has this personality that you kind of just instantly love online, also she is super incredibly photogenic and makes me all kinds of mad jealous. But she also is like this bright little perky ray of sunshine. When I found out she was the author of the princess diaries (who knew they where books right? I know I should have), well I had to read them!!!

Reaction/Review:

Okay, so I am not going to lie to you. I saw the movies first and LOVED them. LOVED!!! That’s when I become a fan of Anne Hattheway! So when reading this book although it had been quite some time since I had scene the movies, I did spend a great deal of time trying to reconcile the book I was reading with the bits of movie I remembered. NOTE: Don’t do that. They are both each their own separate masterpiece. I can honestly say that they are both equally as good and would not rate one above the other, but they most both be recognized for their individual aspects.

Meg has this great perspective on taking her books and putting them in movie format. Go read her blog post about it here: http://www.megcabot.com/2010/11/avalon-high-disney-channel-movie-premiere/ And you know what, I love her take on it. It is a refreshing way of looking at it, and it also kind of freed me up as a reader to not have to pick favorites, but to recognize that both can be good in their own right!!

So the book. I LOVE MIA’s voice. Its like the unreliable narrator constantly contradicting herself in the way that teenagers do. She isn’t trying to act older than her age, she’s just trying to get through high school and I love that. So I found the book had a lot of stuff the movie didn’t, but so what? You get to explore more and world build more in books. You get to take your time in books and develop things at a pace that is more natural. It’s not like speed dating.

And the grandmother. Such a different take than the movie, but it works in its own way. Could you imagine Julie Andrews chain smoking? I couldn’t. But man that would be funny!!

The cast of supporting characters in the book is really well flushed out. Each of them uniquely themselves, but all told fro Mia’s firt person perspective. Brilliant. Oh and how the diary is used to tell the story. LOVE it!!

Final Thoughts:

Honest to goodness I can’t wait to keep reading this series and see how it all turns out. I really loved Mia’s voice and want to capture the same sort of essence in my current WIP!! Go read this now. It is absolutely made of FUN!!

8/10 not for any kind of deep thinking but for the fun well written quirkiness of it.